The present invention relates to an optical disk apparatus, and relates, more particularly, to a closed-type optical disk apparatus capable of monitoring deterioration of a light source of an optical head by closing an optical disk and the light head.
In recent years, there has been used an optical disk as a rewritabe recording medium having a large recording capacity, and an optical disk apparatus using this optical disk in a closed state has also been developed. At the same time, there has also been progressed a reduction in size and weight of the optical disk apparatus as a whole.
There is a description of an article of xe2x80x9cA new optical recording technique for achieving 10 G-bit/square inches in 1998xe2x80x9d relating to a Near-Field recording on the xe2x80x9cNIKKEI BYTExe2x80x9d, September 1997 issue, on page 148. At the middle of page 148 of this article, there is a description of xe2x80x9cboth a fixed-type disk as a hard disk and a removable-type diskxe2x80x9d to indicate a large-capacity optical hard disk apparatus as a new optical recording technique. In general, a fixed-type disk like a hard disk is usually fixed in a closed state within an apparatus.
In the next paragraph of the above expression in the article, it is also described that a red-color laser is used for a laser to be used for an optical pick-up for the optical disk apparatus.
When a n apparatus is structured by setting an optical disk into a closed and fixed state like a hard disk, it is inevitable that the disk cannot be replaced. If this optical disk apparatus is in failure, the information recorded on the closed and fixed optical disk is lost.
Further, since the optical disk apparatus uses a semiconductor laser, the optical disk apparatus may become out of order due to deterioration of this semiconductor laser.
As explained above, there has been a problem that if a failure of the optical disk apparatus is attributable to deterioration of a semiconductor laser, information already recorded and/or information to be recorded onto the closed and fixed optical disk is lost.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an optical disk apparatus capable of avoiding a loss of information recorded and/or information to be recorded on to a closed and fixed optical disk if a failure of the optical disk apparatus is attributable to deterioration of a semiconductor laser.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an optical disk apparatus capable of enabling a user to know deterioration or a beginning of deterioration of a semiconductor laser and capable of prohibiting a recording operation once deterioration of the semiconductor laser has started.
In other words, it is a first object of the invention to provide an optical disk apparatus having closed therein an optical recording medium capable of rewriting and reproducing information and a semiconductor laser capable of recording information onto or reproducing information from the recording medium, the optical disk apparatus comprising:
a monitoring section for monitoring a progress state of deterioration of the semiconductor laser;
a deterioration decision section for deciding a state of deterioration of the semiconductor laser based on a result of a monitoring of the monitoring section; and
a posting section for informing a result of a decision of the deterioration decision section to the outside of the apparatus.
It is a second object of the invention to provide
an optical disk apparatus having closed therein an optical recording medium capable of rewriting and reproducing information and a semiconductor laser capable of recording information onto or reproducing information from the recording medium, the optical disk apparatus comprising:
a monitoring section for monitoring a progress state of deterioration of the semiconductor laser;
a deterioration decision section for deciding a state of deterioration of the semiconductor laser based on a result of a monitoring of the monitoring section; and
a control section for stopping only an operation of recording information onto the optical recording medium by the semiconductor laser if the deterioration decision section has made a decision that deterioration of the semiconductor laser is in progress.
It is a third object of the invention to provide an optical disk apparatus having closed therein an optical recording medium capable of rewriting and reproducing information and a semiconductor laser capable of recording information onto or reproducing information from the recording medium, the optical disk apparatus comprising:
a monitoring section for monitoring a progress state of deterioration of the semiconductor laser;
a deterioration decision section for deciding a state of deterioration of the semiconductor laser based on a result of a monitoring of the monitoring section; and
a control section for stopping the driving of the semiconductor laser if the deterioration decision section has made a decision that the semiconductor laser is deteriorated.
Since the optical disk apparatus of the present invention has an electric circuit for monitoring the progress of deterioration of the semiconductor laser and the display section for displaying deterioration or a starting of deterioration of the semiconductor laser, it is possible to protect information recorded on the optical disk closed within the optical disk apparatus.
Further, since the optical disk apparatus of the present invention has an electric circuit for monitoring the progress of deterioration of the semiconductor laser and the apparatus prohibits the recording of information when a starting of deterioration of the semiconductor laser is deteriorated, it is also possible to avoid the loss of information due to a sudden incapability of recording during a recording operation.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.